Octoberfest, Poudre Douce, and the Great Apple PopOver
Harvest Parties and Medieval Surprises
It’s Oktoberfest! Harvest festivals all over the world are gathering. Each time I pick the autumn apples from my mom’s tree, I think, “Oh yes, my pretties, you are about to nourish many pies, many pancakes, many cups of grog.”
I have two recipes for you today, hopefully off the beaten path.
One is a “popover” baked in an iron skillet filled with a sweet apple compote. It can be breakfast, brunch, or dinner dessert!
The other isn’t a meal, it’s a magic powder. A powder that goes with all things dark, sticky, and wintry! It’s called “Poudre Douce” and I discovered it in the original “Game of Thrones” cookbook, A Feast of Ice and Fire.
Let’s start with the Sweet Powder, courtesy of a 14th century text:
4 ½ t. Cinnamon
1 t. Ground Ginger
1 t. Grains of Paradise (or substitute black pepper, but once you taste paradise, you’ll not go back! )
Pinch Nutmeg
1 cup Sugar (powered or grain, either one).
Shake up all the spices, and store in an airtight jar. YOu may use it on sweets — think pies, fruitcakes, puddings— or, savory roasting meats — lamb, beef, pork. You may add it to dark wine for the ‘mulled’ flavor everyone loves!
I can’t say enough about all I learned from the two medieval gastronome historians, Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Sarina Lehrer— who wrote “Feast of Ice and Fire.” I’ve bought the book at least 5 times to give to friends.
Here’s some of the recipes they present, that use “Poudre Douce”: Medieval Pease Porridge, Medieval Cold Fruit Soup, Armoured Turnips!, Mulled Wine, Cheese and Onion Pie, Medieval White Beans and Bacon. I also put the powder in my Mexican Champurrado bowl for Xmas (Aztec style hot chocolate).
Even when the last season of the GoT series went to hell, my merry band of Sunday potluckers’ kept cooking out of this treasury, and we were thrilled every night.
My favorite baked apple treat is not streusel, or even pie. It’s a giant popover-style pancake, filled with the fruit. Here’s a recipe, adapted from Anna Thomas’ Vegetarian Epicure:
INGREDIENTS
Popover Batter
3 large eggs
¾ c. Real milk (you want the fat)
¾ white flour
½ t. Salt
1 ½ T. Unsalted Butter
½ c. Thin sliced apples (something tart, like a green pippin)
Fruit Filling
1 lb. Tart Fresh Apples
¼ c. Melted butter
¼ c. Sugar
A pinch or two of Poudre Douce, or cinnamon/nutmeg
Topping
2 T. Melted Butter
Powered Sugar to shake a little on top at the end.
Instructions
Prep the apples first: wash them, peel and core them, cut your thin slices. It doesn’t matter what “shape” they are, really, just that they are thin.
Want to know my favorite apple helper?
In lieu of obedient servants or competent children at my beck and call, I love cranking the bright red mechanical apple peeler and corer! It’s inexpensive! It works! You feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder!
Okay, back to the popover . . .
Place aside a handful or a ½ cup of the sliced apples, which you’ll add to the batter. The rest are for your filling.
Preheat the over to 450 degrees.
Beat together the batter ingredients (except for apples) until the batter is completely smooth. Then add your ½ cup of apples, stir them in gently.
Take out a large iron skillet, a 12” one. Put it on the stovetop and melt a tablespoon and a half of butter in its bottom on medium-low heat, with a spray or drop of oil so it doesn’t burn.
As soon as it is piping hot, pour all the batter in, to cover the skillet bottom, and set the whole thing in the hot oven.
Important: After 35 minutes, turn DOWN the oven temp to 350 degrees and continue baking.
This is the fun part:
In the first quarter-hour of baking, the batter will puff WAY UP like a cloud, in the way you expect from popovers. You can open the oven door and pierce the high spots with a fork, to calm down the wild peaks.
While it’s baking, prepare your filling:
Sauté your apples in another pan with ¼ cup of butter, and ¼ cup of sugar. Season with the Poudre Douce.
If you like, you can add a handful of raisins or currants you’ve soaked in sherry/brandy/rum. You can’t go wrong.
Sauté the fruit about 10 minutes— the apples should be tender, not kaput. You don’t want applesauce!
This kind of fruit compote, you can make anytime, and then enjoy it with ice cream, pie, cake, pancakes, anything you like.
Back to your popover pancake. Take it out of the oven, and gracefully, with a spatula’s help, slide it onto a large platter. You put so much butter in the bottom, it shouldn’t stick!
I love picking out the platter. A communal dish, the pretty centerpiece.
You ladle your apple filling on one side of the “pancake” and gently fold over the other side of the pancake.
Maybe pour a little more melted butter on top, sprinkle powdered sugar like snow on its peak, and drizzle it with maple syrup.
Slice it up and remember, sharing is caring! It is difficult not to run into another room and eat it all yourself.
That apple peeler corer only works on commercial apples. The apples from my tree are too irregular!
Dragging myself out of bed to make some sweet powder!